Choosing the best subwoofer for your home theater or music system is a completely objective process, unlike choosing a full-range loudspeaker, which is a highly personal and subjective decision. A great subwoofer must do its job in five highly objective and easily understood ways in order to unleash a truly convincing and immersive experience. These performance attributes are explained in this video by SVS President Gary Yacoubian.

Low frequencies, or bass, are critical to the enjoyment of any music or cinematic content. The sounds you hear and literally feel are a huge part of the immediacy, excitement, and emotional impact of our favorite movies, songs, TV shows and video games, and only a dedicated powered subwoofer can fully unleash these experiences.

The best subwoofer designs exploit the non-directionality of human low frequency perception, meaning you shouldn’t be able to hear where the bass is coming from, so a single subwoofer can create bass for all the other speakers in an audio system or home theater. Watch and understand the qualities of bass and how the world’s best subwoofer designs produce low frequencies with effortless ease.